


Seven Days Time

by officialbookwizard



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Don't Examine This Too Closely, F/F, Fire, Gay, Hunters of Artemis, I Don't Like Being Sued, I don't know what I'm doing, I got the prompt from tumblr, Lesbian, Mutual Pining, Theyna - Freeform, can't say thalia is any less sassy tbh, it wasn't even leo's fault, minor hints of solangelo percabeth frazel and jasper, not very slow of a burn this all happens in 15 google drive pages, piper likes fire, sassy reyna, very weirdly snarky characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:28:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24829846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/officialbookwizard/pseuds/officialbookwizard
Summary: A lot can happen in seven days time.Especially when you're Thalia Grace.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Nico di Angelo & Will Solace, Thalia Grace/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano
Comments: 10
Kudos: 76





	1. Chapter One

The piece of paper crumpled between Thalia’s hands.

It was a letter from Reyna. Jason had, rather stupidly, decided to fight the emperor Caligula. He’d almost died. He should have died, a spear in his chest and too much blood leaving his body too fast. He had been unconscious for days, and no one knew how he’d survived.

It terrified Thalia to think that he might have died. She had already lost her brother once before; she knew she couldn’t take it again.

She couldn’t just sit here, unchanging, while everyone she knew and loved aged and died around her. If Thalia hated one thing, it was helplessness. She had joined the hunters to gain control- she didn’t want to be the victim of a prophecy she couldn’t stop.

It used to seem perfect, being Artemis’ lieutenant. It was still amazing. She loved Artemis and the hunters like sisters- and some of them, Artemis included, were. But now, Thalia realized that she could not stand by like this. It would drive her mad.

Where would she be in a thousand years? She wasn’t sure humans had a thousand years left. But her friends all knew where they’d be- happy and safe in Elysium, enjoying an eternity of rest from fighting.

There was one thing to do, and she was going to do it before she regained any of her logic. She was going to walk up to Artemis, hand over her circlet, and resign. She would go to the Waystation- surely Emmie and Josephine understood what she was going through. But first she should go to Camp Half- Blood and see Jason. She only hoped Artemis would take it well.

She approached Artemis in her tent, took off her circlet, and explained the situation. She wasn’t sure how it was going to go, but could only hope it would be okay.

Somehow, Thalia survived the experience. She assumed it was because Artemis also had to worry over an idiot brother who could die at any moment. The difference was that Thalia was not powerless to protect hers. Artemis had simply sighed, took the circlet, and waved her hand, making Thalia mortal once again. Thalia had expected it to hurt, or, at least to feel more weighed down and burdened.

However, she felt free.

It took her about five minutes to learn that it wasn’t that easy. Here she was, stranded in the middle of a Californian forest with her tent in her pocket. She had her shield, but she certainly didn’t have a weapon or a way to cross the country. The Waystation was far away from here, and Camp Half- Blood even further.

New Rome, on the other hand, was close. Thalia had a bit of mortal money on her. By bus, the trip couldn’t be more than an hour. They would have a place for her to stay for a while and a method of transportation to take her to Camp Half- Blood.  
\----

The bus driver looked at Thalia funny when she stepped on. She could only guess at what her shield appeared as to him. The mist worked in strange ways sometimes. She paid and sat down, watching the state of California pass by.

After what seemed like an eternity, the bus stopped just Northeast of Oakland. This wasn’t too far from the Caldecott Tunnel. Thalia could walk it in minutes.

As she neared the maintenance door, the guards came into view- Hazel and Dakota. Hazel frowned upon seeing Thalia.

“Did Artemis decide to drop in for another surprise visit? We didn’t expect you for another few months,” said Hazel.

“Actually, no,” Thalia replied. “I quit. Reyna sent me a letter about Jason, and all I could think of was that I’d already lost him once. I can’t see him die again.”

Hazel nodded. Thalia guessed she understood, having been dead herself for an annoyingly long amount of time. “We’re going to Camp half- Blood in a week’s time. Maybe you can stay here until then. We’ll have to check with Frank and Reyna, but I can’t imagine they’d say no.”

Dakota opened the door for Thalia. “I don’t know where Frank is, but you should find Reyna in the Principia. She’s trying to negotiate a deal with her sister.”

“Okay, thank you.”

Thalia headed through the tunnel, emerging by the Little Tiber, which was beautiful in the early evening light. After crossing the river, bugging Terminus, and getting lost at least four times, she was standing in the doorway to the Principia. Sure enough, Reyna was sitting at the table, her dogs one on each side, and a surprisingly large jar of jelly beans in front of her.

Reyna looked up. Clearly, whoever she had expected to see, it wasn’t Thalia. A confused expression crossed her face for a split second, but she covered it up immediately.

“Hi, Thalia. What brings you here?” she asked.

“I got your letter about Jason,” she began. “I didn’t want to lose him again. I quit the Hunters, and now I’m trying to get to Camp Half- Blood. Hazel told me that you were going for a visit soon. Is there a chance I can go with you?”

“That’s fine,” Reyna said. “I see no reason you can’t. You can stay here for the time being.”

“Okay, thank you,” said Thalia. “Is there a place where I can put up my tent?”

“No, you won’t need your tent. We have guest rooms in the praetors’ villa.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude.”

“No, it’s fine,” said Reyna. “You are a guest, and must be treated as such. We have plenty of space; we may as well use it.”

Within a few minutes, Thalia was standing in an empty room in the praetors’ villa. She didn’t really have anything to put down in the room- she kept all of her possessions in her tent, which was currently in her pocket. There was no real need to take that out.

She wandered out of the room, into the hallway. One of its walls was entirely made of windows, showing a small courtyard in the back of the villa. Down the hallway was a living room, lit entirely from a skylight and large windows. Reyna was sitting at a desk in the corner, writing furiously on what looked like an important document. Thalia wouldn’t bother her.

After wandering through the villa for a while, Thalia decided that being there was too awkward. She left and went to walk around New Rome. Though the city was beautiful and the people were great, Thalia still felt like an imposter. She supposed she was- after leaving the Hunters, there wasn’t really anywhere in particular she truly belonged.

In the end, she ended up going back to the villa. By that time, Reyna was gone. Thalia was ashamed to admit to herself that this was a relief- she was uncomfortable enough staying here as it was, and having Reyna there was far too awkward. After all, she barely knew the praetor. They had sent a few letters since the Battle of Viejo San Juan, but that wasn’t nearly enough to make this any more comfortable.

Reyna came back after an hour. She relaxed a little as she entered the room, but tensed up again as soon as she saw Thalia. Thalia watched her catch herself and frown a little before sitting on one of the couches next to Thalia.

“I’m sorry. This must be as awkward for you as it is for me,” Reyna said.

Thalia had no clue what to say to that. Reyna looked like she wasn’t done talking, so Thalia nodded and let her continue.

“I know we’ve almost never even spoken, but I really don’t want to be a stranger to you. We have a week before we leave, and I’m sure neither of us wants to be walking on eggshells the entire time.”

“Alright, let’s stop being strangers, then,” Thalia said. “Why don’t we walk around the city for a while and talk a bit?”

“Excellent idea.” Reyna looked relieved, like that was something she had wanted to suggest but couldn’t put into words.

The two left the villa and headed off towards the city. Thalia had to make an effort not to avoid talking about her life before she ran away from her home. Of course, she had to tell the stapler story. If anyone had the right to hold it over Jason’s head, it was Reyna.

“-I walked into the room, and Jason was sitting on the floor, half of a stapler in his mouth and the other half being shoved in. He had a really big mouth, now that I think about it. Like three- quarters of a stapler-sized. Of course, the one remaining quarter was the one with the pointy staple sticking out.”

Reyna was laughing almost hysterically by that point. “That reminds me of one time, before either of us were elected praetor. It was during my first war games. I had been at the camp about a week and Jason already had ten marks on his tattoo. So, I naturally assumed he knew what he was doing when he told me to throw whatever I could find to soften up the defenses.

“Looking back, he probably meant rocks, but I had a stapler and a tape dispenser in my pocket- don’t ask, long story- and I decided to throw those. I threw the tape dispenser and missed horribly, but, when I was about to throw the stapler, somebody came up behind Jason and me. I panicked and tried to hit her with the stapler, but ended up flinging it at Jason by accident.”

Thalia smirked. “Looks like staplers are really out to get him.”

“As well as anything that can hit him in the head,” said Reyna. “He always manages to get himself knocked unconscious.”

“I know! He had a harder head when he was little, which was just as well because he always ended up bumping it on things, especially cabinet doors. I would always find him sitting on the floor next to a cabinet, screaming.” Thalia laughed.

“Do you think Jason would mind that we’re telling this?” Reyna asked.

“Oh, yeah, definitely. But who’s going to tell him?”

“Fair point. When Jason was first elected praetor, we were super competitive. I had become praetor a few months before him, and he was gloating to me a lot, because I had said that he’d never make it. So, of course, one day he stood on top of the table in the villa and proclaimed himself the champion. I think Aurum had had enough by then, because she jumped onto the table and started licking Jason so hard he fell backwards. He had a massive lump on his head for days. The children of Apollo in the medical center had to try so hard not to laugh.”

The two continued telling the most embarrassing stories about Jason they could think of and enjoying the city of New Rome until it was far too late.

\----  
“I’ll race you back to the villa,” Thalia said.

Reyna smirked. “You sure you want to try that? I’m faster than you even in full armor.”

“Bet.”

The two ran through the city, fairly even matches for each other. A few people, still outside, watched them go by, smiling slightly. They never saw Reyna doing anything that wasn’t work, and seeing her racing through the streets with Thalia was a nice change.

Reyna started to fall behind, just slightly, as they reached the villa. Thalia won, but not by more than a second or two.

“I- told- you-, praetor,” she said, between gasps of air.

Reyna was laughing, clutching her side. “Well, I could beat you without the armor.”

“We have plenty of time to test that theory.” Thalia opened the door and they both went in. Frank’s door was closed; it was a safe bet he was already asleep. Thalia opened the door to her room and stepped inside.

“G’night, praetor.”

Reyna, her skin still flushed from running, stood by the door to her own room. “Good night, Thalia.”


	2. Chapter Two

Thalia awoke the next morning to a rapping on her door.

“Isn’t it a bit too early for this?” she asked as loud as her half- asleep voice would allow her, which wasn’t very loud. 

Reyna opened her door, already fully dressed, her armor on and her hair braided. “It’s 6 in the morning. Time to wake up. I know you technically have no duties and no responsibilities, but you’re here, so you’re helping the rest of us. The legion doesn’t wait for a reasonable hour; we make our own reasonable hours.”

“It’s the crack of dawn, RARA.”

“Yes, I know. That’s the point. Now, it’s time to get up.”

Thalia stood up, glaring daggers at Reyna, who just laughed a little.

“What?” Thalia asked.

Reyna rolled her eyes. “You’re not very intimidating first thing in the morning.”

“I wish I could say the same about you,” Thalia said. “How are you such a morning person?”

“Well, for starters, there’s the fact that I’ve been up for an hour. For another, there’s the fact that when you need to be ready by 6:05 every morning, you learn or die.”

“And what time is it now?” Thalia asked.

Reyna looked at her watch, which Thalia saw was printed with Roman numerals. “6:03.”

“REYNA! I have two minutes! Why didn’t you get me up earlier?”

Reyna smirked and left the room as Thalia scrambled to get dressed and make her bed. When she had finished, she saw that it was 6:06. She was late.

Thalia rushed through the villa to find Reyna sitting in the living room, fiddling absently with her aegis. Frank was putting on his armor in the back of the room. Neither of them seemed rather rushed.

“We’re late! We’re late and I have no idea where to go nor do I belong to a cohort. Why exactly do I have to comply with your lateness rules?”

“Actually, you aren’t late, but we should really be going now. 6:10 is the max, I just knew you wouldn’t get out of bed if I told you that. And, to answer your question, you’ll be helping Frank teach archery lessons at 6:45,” said Reyna.

“Excellent. Something I could actually help with,” Thalia said.

The three walked to the praetorium, where they split ways, Reyna to the principia and Frank and Thalia to the field of Mars. 

Thalia almost died several times during the archery lessons. First, the legionnaires complained about Thalia not being as good as Apollo. Of course she wasn’t as good as Apollo! Yes, she’d trained under Artemis for years, but that didn’t mean she  _ was  _ Artemis. Next, the legionnaires took their shots, and, while she had the sense to get out of the way, she honestly would have been safer had she stood in front of the target, as not one of the arrows made its mark. 

Lavinia’s bubblegum exploded on one of her crossbow bolts just before shooting, and  _ of course _ that was the only one that hit the target and splattered it with pink.

Frank didn’t seem any more amused than Thalia. Both were incredibly glad when the lesson was over. 

“What do I do now?” she asked Frank.

He thought for a moment. “Find Reyna and convince her to stop overworking herself. She’s two weeks ahead of schedule and I’m seriously concerned for her sanity.”

“Will do, Praetor Zhang.”

Reyna wasn’t in the principia. Thalia, naturally, assumed that she had decided to take a break. She needed it. After a quick internal battle to the death, Thalia decided to go back to the villa.

She found Reyna there, not taking a break as Thalia had thought, but working at her desk in the corner.

“I’m under strict orders from Praetor Frank Zhang that you are to stop overworking yourself,” Thalia said. “I quite agree with those orders, so you are going to take a break and do a normal person thing with me for a little while.”

“What normal person thing? You, of all people, really aren’t good at normal person things.”

Thalia hesitated. “I didn’t think I’d get this far. Um, what do normal people do?”

“Don’t ask me.” Reyna shrugged. “If you can find something that normal people do, then I’ll take a break and join you.”

Thalia scanned the room. There wasn’t a lot of potential for being normal here. The room had several ancient artifacts, a suit of armor in the corner, and a mosaic of what Thalia was pretty sure was most of a chariot scattered over the two walls that weren’t all windows. 

It was an almost embarrassingly long time before Thalia found the cabinet of movies by the couch. She wasn’t sure why that wasn’t a hazard, but she assumed it was in part because the camp was so heavily veiled in magic and in another part because you can’t communicate via a TV. However, she was going to make Reyna watch Star Wars with her if it killed them both.

“Alright, I found a normal person thing. Take two hours out of your overloaded schedule, because we’re going to watch Star Wars.”

Reyna groaned. “I seriously didn’t think you could find something normal people do. But two hours? I don’t think I can afford to spend that much time-”

“Of course you can,” Thalia interrupted. “Frank said you’re two weeks ahead of work. You can spare two hours.”

“Fine. But after this, I’m getting back to work.”

Thalia held up the DVD. “Fair. But after that I’m finding something else for you to do.”

Reyna took it from Thalia. “This says that it’s movie 4. Shouldn’t we watch the first one?”

“Reyna, you amateur,” Thalia said. “This is the first one. The people who decided what order to put the movies in were crazy. It starts with 4, then goes 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, and 9.”

Reyna shook her head. “Who designed this system?”

Thalia shrugged. “No one smart.”

After five minutes of cursing, jabbing the movie at the DVD player, and begging for mercy, Thalia managed to put the movie in. Reyna refused to help, sitting smugly on the couch.

“Thanks for your help, RARA,” Thalia said sarcastically.

“You’re welcome,” Reyna said with mock cheerfulness.

The two watched the movie. Thalia quickly learned that Reyna was not a quiet movie- watcher. She pointed out every little thing and made snarky comments about Leia’s hair (which Thalia couldn’t see any problem with, but Reyna was clearly underimpressed) every five minutes. 

Either Thalia’s senses were deceiving her, or Reyna actually seemed to be liking the movie. She hoped it was the latter, as she liked her senses when they worked.    
  
“Let’s watch the next one,” Thalia said innocently, holding back a smirk. 

“Thalia, we’ve been sitting here for hours. We’re doing something.” Either Reyna forgot that she had been doing work or she didn’t care anymore.

“I’m melting into the couch.”

Reyna grabbed Thalia’s arm and dragged her upright. “Come with me.”

Thalia found herself being dragged into the city by Reyna. She wasn’t exactly complaining- Reyna’s stubbornness was hilarious. She never thought she’d see the praetor of Rome making a disgruntled pouty face, much less at her, but here she was. 

Reyna ended up taking Thalia to a small cafe, where the owner clearly knew her and handed her a hot chocolate as they walked in. Thalia ordered one, given the owner didn’t know her favorite by heart, but she got it free for being with Reyna. She made a mental note to have Reyna present whenever she found herself in this cafe.

The cycle continued over the next few days- Reyna trying to get work done and actually succeeding for a few hours, Thalia dragging her away from her work to watch Star Wars, Reyna being incredibly sassy during the movie, both of them getting hot chocolate afterwards. It was a pattern that seemed to be taking a lot of stress off of Reyna, and Thalia was determined to preserve it at all costs. 

When they got to the seventh movie, the snarky comments intensified drastically. The movie had barely started before the gears started turning in Thalia’s head.

She pointed at Rey on the screen. “I bet Rey is short for Reyna.”

“Thalia, don’t,” Reyna warned.

“Whatever you say, Rey,” Thalia said, rather pleased with herself.

“Thalia-” Reyna was smiling now, though she still managed to seem annoyed.

“That’s your name now.”

Thalia’s sixth day at Camp Jupiter, after the two finished the eighth movie and got their hot chocolate, Thalia was somehow able to convince Reyna to start the last movie late at night. It was probably a poor choice, as, if she managed to stay awake for the entire movie, she would end up not getting nearly enough sleep. However, Thalia was never one to back down from anything that could be even remotely considered a challenge, and, as she was rapidly learning, Reyna was very much a person with a ‘sleep is for the weak’ mentality.

By the time they started the movie, it was already past eleven at night. At the beginning, both girls were determined to stay awake and confident they could. However, an hour and a half later of Thalia annoying Reyna, Reyna throwing popcorn at Thalia in retaliation, an all- out popcorn war, Aurum and Argentum’s interruptions, and trying to explain everything to a very confused Hazel (who was taking a night shift and had popped in to talk to Frank), both of them had fallen asleep on the couch.

Thalia was the first to wake up. When she did, the first thing she noticed was Reyna’s arm. Then, the rest of Reyna, who Thalia seemed to have curled herself around in her sleep. Reyna had an arm over Thalia and another on Aurum, who was sitting on the couch next to Reyna. Thalia’s arms were wrapped around Reyna, her head on Reyna’s shoulder. 

This did not look platonic. Artemis would kill her.

It took Thalia a minute to realize that she was no longer a Hunter, and that this was fine. Once the absolute panic was gone, she could say that she actually liked it. 

That was the Freudian slip that broke the camel’s back. Thalia didn’t like this, and she DEFINITELY didn’t like Reyna, who was probably straight anyway. Thalia usually had a pretty good gaydar, but girls were hard. That defeated the purpose a bit, if you asked her.

Thalia did her best to untangle herself from Reyna, convincing Argentum to take her place on the couch. Eventually, however, she managed to get untangled without waking Reyna. Thalia stood up next to the couch and looked down at the praetor, who looked very peaceful when she wasn’t scowling. It would be a shame to wake her. Then again, she didn’t have to yet. They were leaving at noon, and it was currently around nine. The acting praetors had already taken their posts, leaving Reyna with nothing to do.

Leaving Reyna on the couch, Thalia went to her room and did a once- over to make sure she hadn’t left anything out. She quickly put her belongings in her tent and headed out to the courtyard, where Hazel was talking with Nico, who hadn’t been here last night.

Nico smirked as Thalia walked out.

“Got to say, Grace, I’m impressed,” he said. He only used her last name when he was teasing her. It was something all the children of the Big Three had silently accepted- Nico will only use his cousins’ first names when he’s being serious with them, which wasn’t very often. 

Thalia said nothing. Nico continued.

“Getting yourself off of Reyna without waking her up must have been hard. As I learned in Albania, she’s a very light sleeper, and very dangerous when you wake her up.”

Nico refused to tell anyone what happened in Albania, and Reyna and Coach Hedge had agreed that it was not to be spoken of. Sometimes Thalia wondered what had happened, but other times someone said something so weird that she was glad she didn’t know.

Thalia sighed. “You saw that, didn’t you?”

“I have photos to prove it,” Nico confirmed.

“If I find out you’ve told anyone-”

“Don’t worry, I won't,” Nico said. “I won’t show the photos to anyone unless I  _ really  _ need to blackmail you.”

Nico glanced at Hazel, who was smiling off to the side. She sighed upon seeing the look on his face.

“No, Nico, I am not going to start fanning myself. In fact, I saw them too.” Hazel said. “I think I’ll put you and Reyna in a boat, Thalia.”

“Hazel,” Nico said in a very Hazel-we-talked-about-this tone. “The term is ‘ship.’ You ship them.”

“The POINT,” Hazel said, glaring at Nico before turning to Thalia. “Is that you aren’t fooling anyone by pretending you don’t like each other even though you really do and are in denial because both of you think the other is straight when, in reality, neither of you are.”

Thalia stared at Hazel. She seemed to have a better understanding of this than Thalia thought.

“Anyway,” Nico tried to break the silence. “We still have a few hours before we have to leave. Let’s go do something before Reyna wakes up.”   
  


The three of them spent the next few hours in the city, wreaking general havoc. Once Reyna turned up, everyone got free hot chocolate. 

Soon, however, they were all standing in the middle of the Field of Mars with Frank. It turned out that Nico was there to shadow travel them to camp. He had made everyone stand with their hands in each other’s, and they were ready to leave. Thalia was absolutely  _ not  _ getting butterflies from holding Reyna’s hand. All she could register was Reyna standing next to her. Thalia’s hand was slightly smaller, but fit in Reyna’s almost perfectly.

“Do you have a doctor’s note, Nico?” Reyna asked, her slight teasing note suggesting that she had the tea about Will.

Nico turned bright red. “No, as it happens, I don’t.”

“Seriously? You have a doctor’s note for anything and everything else, but the one time it could kill you, you don’t?”

Reyna had clearly taken the role of overprotective older sister to Nico. It was only a matter of time before she adopted him, got full custody, and wrapped him in bubble wrap.

“Reyna, it’s been months. I’m fine. This is not going to kill me. I have not shadow travelled in months. We’ll be fine. Is everyone ready?”

Nico did not wait for an answer. The second he said that, they were yanked into oblivion.


	3. Chapter Three

Thalia had never shadow travelled before, and she wasn’t sure she liked it. Scratch that, she hated it.

When they landed at Camp Half- Blood, the first thing Thalia did was fall over. Luckily, Reyna, who had shadow travelled a fair bit bringing back the Athena Parthenos and was used to this by now, managed to help her up. The two stood there, staring at each other.

It was the first time Thalia really noticed Reyna’s eyes. They were such a deep night black, so dark and intense that Thalia couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed before.

They stood there for a few seconds before Nico started yelling at them. Thalia blushed as she turned away from Reyna and towards Jason, who was running towards the five as quickly as he could.

He had healed well in the week’s time, with no indication that it had happened. Or, at least, that Thalia could see. He had been stabbed in the chest. While there was probably a nasty scar, he seemed physically fine.

Thalia started running to meet him, and she could see Reyna doing the same next to her. As soon as they were within earshot, both started screaming at him. Thalia couldn’t register what Reyna was saying, but assumed it was something along the lines of what Thalia was desperately trying to communicate- that he was a stupid risk- taker who was too selfless for his own good and should never have gone on a quest that was surely a death mission.

At one point, they started screaming the exact same thing at the exact same time.

“-NEVER SHOULD HAVE DONE IT, STOP BEING SO SELF- SACRIFICING, YOU COULD HAVE DIED-”

Both cut themselves off at the same time, staring at each other. It took Thalia a good twenty seconds to realize that everyone else was staring at them too. Why did being around Reyna always end up so awkwardly?

“STOP STARING AT US, MORONS!” Thalia says, still yelling.

She was glad everyone knew how willing and capable she was of murder, because they listened to her- something they wouldn’t have normally done, considering they still thought she was a hunter and had no authority over them.

Behind Jason was Annabeth, who had clearly had her fill of everyone’s nonsense.

“I’m so glad you guys are here,” she said, relieved, addressing not only Reyna and Thalia, but Frank, Hazel, and Nico, who had by now caught up and were right behind them.

“Percy and I spent the past few months watching his new sister, and he has become a complete Disney movie addict. He’s been babbling about a movie party for days now, and there’s nothing I can do to stop him.”

The first thought that went through Thalia’s head was how much time she had spent watching movies in the last week. A quick glance at Reyna told her she was thinking the same thing. Thalia decided, for some reason, to go with it.

“Alright. Where’s everyone else?” Reyna asked.

“They’ll be in Percy’s cabin in a few minutes. I’m pretty sure Piper and Percy went to get popcorn, Leo should be putting away Festus- I told him that fire breathing dragons aren’t really a good idea for a movie party,- and Will’s waiting by the Hades cabin to talk to Nico before everyone, and I quote, ‘starts yelling at how stupid the characters are, that even their stupidity is stupid.’”

Nico went bright red and buried his face in his hands, mumbling something Thalia didn’t fully hear about a significant annoyance.

“I’m going to make sure nothing’s on fire at the Big House. Piper doesn’t know how to make popcorn and I’m pretty sure neither of them know that water doesn’t put out oil fires very well.”

“Probably best. We’ll wait for you at the Poseidon cabin.”

Nico went off to talk with Will (talk or have an intense makeout session behind the Hades cabin? No one will ever know), Frank went to see how his sort- of- siblings on the Greek side were doing, and to possibly stop Clarisse from murdering someone, and Hazel left to supervise Nico, probably without his knowledge from a nearby tree.

Thalia and Reyna were the only ones who went directly to the Poseidon cabin. It was empty, but Percy had clearly prepared it in advance. There was a couch, though it probably wasn’t nearly large enough to hold everyone, and pillows were everywhere. On a larger bed that was probably Tyson’s, a blanket fort had been created. The way everything was propped up perfectly so the roof stayed up, combined with the stuffed owl above the open front, led Thalia to believe that this was Annabeth’s work. She was not surprised in the slightest.

Reyna sat by the couch armrest. Thalia, by instinct, sat sideways over the whole couch, her legs over Reyna’s thighs. It was something she had started doing mid- week, discovered it annoyed Reyna, and had continued doing for that exact reason.

Reyna gave her a look of mixed amusement and annoyance. “Must you do this every time?”

Thalia shrugged. “I’m a lesbian. I can’t sit in chairs. What do you expect?”

“I’m doing it just fine,” Reyna retorted. “We’ve had this conversation at least a dozen times. When will you learn?”

“When the hell I crawled out of freezes over,” Thalia said. “A dozen times is enough for me to learn my lines.”

Reyna, who knew how to pick her battles, sighed and didn’t reply. Thalia continued to sit like an abomination.

Soon, Piper walked in, proclaiming, “I have been banned from the Big House kitchen.”

Piper looked over at the other two girls, Thalia still half sitting on Reyna. With her Aphrodite senses, she raised an eyebrow at Thalia.

“It’s not what you think!” both of them said simultaneously as Thalia hurriedly sat upright next to Reyna.

The traitorous part of her brain wondered for a second, “what if it is what she thinks?” Thalia didn’t listen to it. She had learned a long time ago that she only got bad ideas from that part of her brain.

Thalia had barely sat up when everyone else burst in, yelling. Percy was holding a giant bowl of popcorn over his head. Annabeth was soaking wet. Nico and Will were holding hands as Hazel watched them closely. Jason was trying fruitlessly to unbend his glasses. How they got bent, Thalia didn’t know. From the look of the scene and the faint smell of burning that entered with the chaos, she could only assume that Annabeth’s worst case scenario had come true.

Everyone messily took their seats, piling in droves onto the couch, floor, beds, and everywhere else. Percy and Annabeth were in the fort, arguing playfully over the stuffed owl and whose fault it was that now both of them were dripping wet.

Naturally, Jason, Piper, Nico, and Will were hogging the rest of the space on the couch. Jason refused to scoot over, leaving Nico, who was sitting next to Thalia, crammed against Will. Thalia guessed that was strategic. She ignored the voice in her head saying that she and Reyna were squished together as well.

Percy proclaimed that they were going to start with The Little Mermaid, then Moana, and anything else he could find that had any focus on the ocean. Thalia wondered vaguely how long he would keep them here for. If necessary, Thalia could use evasive maneuvers to sneak out for food when the time came.

Most of the movie passed by without any problems. There was a pillow fight, a minor brawl over popcorn that ended as soon as weapons were drawn, and several interruptions courtesy of the Stolls, who were back to full power now that Travis had come back from college for the summer.

It was the beginning of the “Kiss the Girl” song when Thalia noticed that Reyna was staring at her, a slight smile on her face. Fine. Thalia could play that game. She turned to Reyna and started staring at her in the exact same way. Reyna didn’t turn away, but held her gaze.

The song continued on and on, stretching into an eternity as Thalia and Reyna stared into each other’s eyes.

_Don't stop now_

A smile appeared on Thalia’s face as she continued to stare at Reyna. She came slightly closer.

_Don't try to hide it_

Reyna was so close, Thalia could feel her breathing. Their lips couldn’t be more than a few inches apart.

_How you wanna kiss the girl_

Thalia was well aware of how much she wanted to kiss the girl.

_Go on and kiss the girl_

By this point, it was too late to back out. She was going to kiss Reyna. Thalia hesitated for only a minute. Then, on impulse, she leaned in at the exact moment that Reyna did.

And they were kissing.

Thalia could vaguely hear whispers from her friends, but she didn’t care. Everyone was watching them, but she didn’t care about anything, save for Reyna.

They were kissing. And, right now, nothing else mattered in the world.


End file.
